With the speed of technology moving so fast it can be difficult for a mid-market company to justify the capital expense that is required to successfully run the sophisticated Business Management systems that they may require.

This is a question I ask myself when I reflect on my life, especially when trying to explain my job to friends and family… “Well I’m a Multimedia and Interface Designer for a cloud hosted CRM Software Development Company”… I may as well just say, “I’m a total geek (and…

This is the time of year when we all start looking forward to longer nights, warmer weather and/or getting away to some warmer climate for a spring break. Remembering what it is like to be walking down a warm beach is a distant memory clouded over by snowy blizzards, icy…

In light of last week’s rather…interesting weather forecast and the resulting emergency measures put in place along the U.S. Northeast coast, I think the whole concept of the reliability of forecasting has been pushed to centre stage. I know we all joke about how unreliable weather forecasting is and how…

I was reminiscing today about the first few weeks I spent at OpenCRM. It is incredible to think that I walked in the door, with only a minimal understanding of even what CRM was, much less its capabilities. Hitting the ground running, I soon picked up the things I needed…

The business world is a jungle. It’s hard enough getting business, your internal team should be a well organised pack, hunting in harmony. When you run a business you will want to make sure you have the right tools in your arsenal to get every sale you can get. Without…

Last week when I was writing this post, the BBC ran an article about subliminal advertising. They talked about how it first was introduced in the 1950s and how uncomfortable we still are with the idea of our decisions being influenced without our knowledge (not terribly surprising). What was interesting,…

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I don’t know if you play video games, but I quite enjoy them. I do find that the way people approach big tasks, like a video game or within their work, varies so much that the people who develop games (and other software) must accommodate these preferences.
Personally, I’m usually quite happy to dip in and out of them, but every once and while, a game comes along that I just lose myself in. All I want to do is play...

By designing tools to help ease people’s everyday life, we can help evolve businesses and and put smiles on our consumer’s/user’s faces. As a designer, I do notice when something is well designed. It is easy to take for granted that everything from the knife and fork you eat your dinner with, to the mobile phone, tablet or other 'next best thing' you use, has gone through a design process so it can provide you with a solution to fill...

I’m trying to plan a holiday. Know what the hardest part is? My indecision on the destination.
I want to go to somewhere warm, but I also want to sightsee. I’m a beach bum, but I love being a tourist. I want to laze around by a pool, but I also want to climb up a cliff. What do I do??? It doesn’t help when you are planning for two, as you need to take other people's wants and needs into...

Who else loves the Google Doodles? I really enjoy how whimsical and fun they are, but, at the same time, always find myself reading up a little bit about the person or event that inspired them. I don’t know if Google intended it, but I think their daily Doodles are the perfect example of that very difficult mix of fun and educational.
Today’s Doodle was a celebration of the 270th birthday of Alessandro Volta, the inventor of the battery (to paraphrase...

Sometimes relationships can cause too much misery leaving the people involved just wanting to abandon ship. We don’t want our customer’s to feel like this, so I have put together three ‘P’s to help provide people with policies, plans, and practices to prolong CRM prosperity.
After discussing The People and The Price, I will now look into the final P in our CRM implementation trilogy, which is avoiding The Pain:
3. The Pain
Nobody wants to inflict more pain within a work environment...

As I am sure you are aware from reading my last blog post, I have put together a trilogy of posts to discuss the key elements needed to build and maintain a strong, lasting relationship with your CRM system provider.
Here is the second ‘P’ for preventing potential problems and project pitfalls:
2. The Price
Money is debatably what drives each and every business forward. Therefore it is crucial to have an affordable contract with your CRM provider. We do recognise that this...

I’ve always found February a bit of a strange month. It’s usually a fun one for me because it’s my birthday month, but it’s also the shortest month of the year…and the only one that has any possible variation in length. Which makes sense, I suppose, in a strange sort of way.
I’ve always wondered if really target focused sales people find February an unfair month. Compared to say, January, you might lose a good couple of days of selling time...

This is a question I ask myself when I reflect on my life, especially when trying to explain my job to friends and family… “Well I’m a Multimedia and Interface Designer for a cloud hosted CRM Software Development Company”… I may as well just say, “I’m a total geek (and I love it)”.
So why do I love it so much?
Because being a geek rocks. Well it does if you work for OpenCRM. I spend most of my days trying to...

This is the time of year when we all start looking forward to longer nights, warmer weather and/or getting away to some warmer climate for a spring break. Remembering what it is like to be walking down a warm beach is a distant memory clouded over by snowy blizzards, icy roads and dark, dark evenings.
Although a good cloud hosted CRM solution won’t book your flights or actually fast-forward through the next few months, it will help your days to go...

In light of last week’s rather…interesting weather forecast and the resulting emergency measures put in place along the U.S. Northeast coast, I think the whole concept of the reliability of forecasting has been pushed to centre stage.
I know we all joke about how unreliable weather forecasting is and how you can’t rely on anything meteorologists say, the number of times they get it right (or pretty close to right) I find impressive.
And when they get it wrong, it is...

I was reminiscing today about the first few weeks I spent at OpenCRM. It is incredible to think that I walked in the door, with only a minimal understanding of even what CRM was, much less its capabilities. Hitting the ground running, I soon picked up the things I needed to know as a new starter - how people took their tea and what the office dog was called!
No, really, the first few months here weren’t without their challenges, but...

The business world is a jungle. It’s hard enough getting business, your internal team should be a well organised pack, hunting in harmony.
When you run a business you will want to make sure you have the right tools in your arsenal to get every sale you can get. Without becoming pushy, needy or insistent, you want to portray a calm and in control demeanour.
Take the giraffe for example. It is a calm pacific creature. It harnesses the power of its...

Last week when I was writing this post, the BBC ran an article about subliminal advertising. They talked about how it first was introduced in the 1950s and how uncomfortable we still are with the idea of our decisions being influenced without our knowledge (not terribly surprising).
What was interesting, however, was the test that was carried out by the BBC to see if they could subliminally influence a group of people to choose one type of drink over other...

Why did two penguins jump up and down on their first date?
…so they could break the ice!*
Making a strong first impression with your customer’s is a crucial part of any customer relationship. Within the first few minutes of a conversation, a customer can get the gist of whether you are professional, approachable, and reliable, or not! Therefore, making sure you have the right tools to make that first impression the best it can be, is essential.
Here at OpenCRM, our Project...

In a Cloud based solution, everything is at your fingertips. Make sure to maximise that information you share between your teams.
It’s the season of Man flu. People get sick, and they stay at home in the hopes to get better and not contaminate the rest of their teams. Not only are companies struggling with illness, with extreme snow and rain, sometimes it is just safer all around to stay at home to work. But, what will you do when your...